Novozymes launches new bioinsecticide made from naturally-occurring soil fungus

Met52® Granular for the greenhouse and nursery industries protects both landscape plants and the people who tend them.

Novozymes Biologicals BioAg Group has announced that Met52® Granular will be available for use in Canada in 2010. Met52 is a contact insecticide that provides powerful control against the devastation of black vine weevil larvae and strawberry root weevil for the professional greenhouse and nursery industries.

Met52 was developed from the naturally-occurring soil fungus, Metarhizium anisopliae, and is registered for commercial, non-food use, including application on ornamentals, shrubs, and forest and shade-tree seedlings.

University, government, and independent studies have repeatedly demonstrated that Met52 provides consistent, proven efficacy against all larval stages of the black vine weevil and strawberry root weevil which can attack more than 100 landscape plants. Black vine weevils are considered to be “one of the most destructive and wide spread weevils in US and Canada”.

Dr. Jarrod Leland, Senior Scientist with Novozymes Biologicals says, “Met52 is based on a long history of research and development. It is a biological product that provides competitive efficacy against black vine weevil both in terms of control and persistence. Because the product is biologically based you can achieve efficacy with reduced grower handling concerns.”

Met52 is a unique tool in an integrated pest management system which delivers a number of significant benefits, including outstanding plant protection, a new and very broad mode of action for resistance management, over one-year residual activity along with one-year storage stability, and just a four-hour re-entry interval(REI).

Met52 is the first biocontrol agent to be registered for use in Canada by Novozymes Biologicals BioAg group, the manufacturer of the inoculants JumpStart®, TagTeam®, and N-Prove®. Met52 will complement the current product portfolio in Cananda and support the overall development of Novozymes BioAg in Canada as a leading provider of microbial-basedbiosolutions to the farmer.